Labor asks teachers for funding answers

Labor will bring together parents, teachers and principals for a forum to discuss what works best to improve schools and student results.

CANBERRA, Oct 11 - Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek says the November 20 event in Melbourne will be about making sure the $17 billion extra Labor has pledged to spend on schools is used to get the biggest improvements for children in the classroom.

"Labor is hosting this national schools' forum to identify and discuss the changes needed to ensure excellence, tackle educational disadvantage and make certain all Australian children leave schoolwith the skills they need to participate in their community and in our changing economy," she said on Wednesday.

"We want all Australian schools to be great schools, where children make strong progress each and every year."

The forum will include representatives from the Australian Education Union, the NSW P&C Federation, the Australian Primary Principals Association, the Secondary Principals Association, the National Catholic Education Commission, the Independent Schools Council of Australia, the Independent Education Union, and Children and Young People with Disability Australia.

Teachers and principals will talk about their everyday experiences in the classroom.

The Turnbull Government has commissioned businessman David Gonski to lead a review of how best to achieve educational excellence in schools, to report back by March.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham derided the Labor forum as another talkfest the opposition would use "as nothing more than a photo opp".

"This forum is Labor turning their back on David Gonski and his work," he said, calling on the opposition to back the new review of educationinitiatives.

Labor says the government's overhaul of school funding passed earlier in the year duds the nation's poorest children and takes billions away from what schools were expecting in their budgets over the next decade.